As part of efforts to bridge the gap between research, development and marketing in the renewable energy sector in Nigeria, Women in Renewable Energy Nigeria (W.I.R.E) has called on government, development and funding partners to create a system of safe sale platforms where researchers in the industry can access capital funds for commercial production.

The Editor for Environment Africa Magazine, Sam Ifeanyi Owosu who made this call at the second edition of W.I.R.E 2.0 in Lagos said there are various technologies available in the renewable energy sector but the appropriate mechanism to deploy them for commercial purpose is absent, thereby creating a vacuum in the emerging industry.Nwosu who is the founder of W.I.R.E observed the need not only to develop the industry in terms of creating technologies, but also to grow the market to accommodate the sector.

He said it is only by doing so people can be aware of renewable energy product, therefore facilitating a total reorientation of what the green economy means and what sustainable development can bring into the country.He explained that when the platform to access capital funds is created, the new funding pattern people in the market to acquire renewable energy products equitably without too much heat to their pockets. “If we can bridge that gap, and create that platform a lot of these technologies would be seen in the market and there would be increase use in the society and the domino effects would be wonderful.”

Nwosu stressed that unlike before when renewable energy was seen as the technology for tomorrow today, it is now the technology for today and the future, hence the global decline in the cost of installations even in solar solution in the last few months.

On her take on the event’s theme which was “Enabling Gender Focus for Sustained Empowerment,” the president for W.I.R.E, Anita Nana Okuribido noted that often times, women are always undermined, therefore the need to highlight the roles of women and green entrepreneurs in galvanising the economy of Nigeria in a way that would boost productivity.

She said there have been efforts by the group to collaborate with necessary stakeholders like the ministry of power, the Nigerian electricity commission and regulatory bodies to review policies that would favor women to give them soft landing to deploy huge capacity of electricity through renewable source.

The aim she explained was to try to ensure they generate at least one megawatt in all the various communities of all local government areas of the federation through renewable energy.“We have already started work on the plan of generation, and right now we have partners from America who are ready to give us 100 per cent funding if we can articulate our proposal to be bankable,” Okuribido remarked.